Our Story

The Climigration Network was conceived by a group of facilitators, adaptation practitioners, researchers, and Indigenous and community leaders who came together in 2015 at a gathering hosted by the Consensus Building Institute (CBI) to explore a shared challenge: it was extremely difficult for residents and governments to even start conversations about, let alone plan for, the option of moving to areas safer from growing climate risk. A key finding from this 2015 convening was that people wanted to build a collective space to share, learn, and collaborate on the challenge of climate displacement and migration in the US and its territories.

With support from CBI, founder Carri Hulet led a small group of initial members to form our Network and raise funding to grow. It quickly became clear that a major barrier to successful long-term climate planning was the large gap between the lived experience and wisdom of community members responding to climate risk locally and the policymakers, practitioners, and researchers developing “solutions” and programs absent true partnership with communities.

Our Network’s mission is to bring together people with lived and learned expertise to advance transformative, community-led approaches to climate displacement and relocation in the US and its territories. Our members and partners are Indigenous leaders, community leaders, practitioners, policymakers, researchers, storytellers, artists, and more - working with collective, stubborn optimism towards our shared vision: A world where communities, cultures, and ecosystems are safe from climate risk.

Our Name

“Climigration” is a term coined by Robin Bronen, co-founder and executive director of the Alaska Institute for Justice, to replace the commonly used misnomer “climate refugee.” 

Read Robin’s work about this issue:

• Forced Migration of Alaskan Indigenous Communities Due to Climate Change: Creating a Human Rights Response

• We Must Protect Communities Who Face Climate Change Displacement